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Rural amenity migration, or the relocation for quality of life purposes as opposed to monetary enhancement, has been occurring for decades and has been particularly pronounced in the American West where the phenomenon peaked in the 1990s. Researchers have illustrated that some places are more attractive for migrants than others and that certain regional amenities hold considerable influence on where migrants relocate. Increased migration levels typically result in increased economic growth indicators, making amenity migration an attractive rural development strategy. But comprehensive econometric analysis focused on amenity migration in the American West has been lacking. To address this, we conducted an econometric analysis of attributes that influenced migration to rural Western counties from 1980 to 2010. Over 20 potential amenity supply categories were collated for 356 rural counties from 11 Western states, with a focus on public lands. Descriptive statistics and OLS regressions were estimated and interpreted. Traditional amenities of climate, water area, and regional access were highly associated with migration levels, while designated natural amenities of Wilderness and National Monuments were the most influential public lands for migration to rural Western counties. Farming and oil and gas dependency were negatively associated with migration levels. Increasing the amount of protected areas, and branding campaigns based on natural amenities, can be a critical development strategy for rural communities.

Forest ecosystems contribute to human welfare in important ways, but because of the nonmarket nature of many of the goods and services produced, both markets and governments fail to optimize their production commensurate with their economic and ecological significance. Despite the recent proliferation of nonmarket environmental valuation in the literature, the incorporation of nonmarket values into public forest decision making has been limited by institutional and methodological barriers. To address this disconnect, we conducted a case study to quantify conservation values for the Tongass National Forest in a manner conducive for public forest planning. A choice experiment featuring proposed forest management alternatives with changes in critical attributes relative to their levels in the status quo was used to generate the requisite data. Econometric analysis suggests that Alaskans have strong preference for conservation management, including both preservation and ecological restoration, over status quo or exploitation management. However, there is significant heterogeneity among Alaskans in terms of bias toward the status quo depending on their socioeconomic characteristics, e.g., gender, age, place of residence, household income, whether or not they have dependent children. The findings of this study can be helpful to forest managers in the preparation of resource management plans consistent with maximization of total economic value of forest ecosystem services.

BackgroundWildfires often have long-lasting costs that are difficult to document and are rarely captured in full.AimsWe provide an example for measuring the full costs of a single wildfire over time, using a case study from the 2010 Schultz Fire near Flagstaff, Arizona, to enhance our understanding of the long-term costs of uncharacteristic wildfire.MethodsWe conducted a partial remeasurement of a 2013 study on the costs of the Schultz Fire by updating government and utility expenditures, conducting a survey of affected homeowners, estimating costs to ecosystem services and updating costs to real 2021 US dollars.Key resultsCosts associated with the Schultz Fire continued to accrue over 10 years, particularly those associated with post-wildfire flooding, totalling between US$109 and US$114 million. Suppression costs represented only 10% of total costs.ConclusionsThis study is the first of its kind to include a remeasurement of wildfire costs and to provide a long-term assessment of the same wildfire over a 10-year period.ImplicationsOur results and lessons learned can help standardise approaches for full cost accounting of wildfire and illuminate the breadth of typically latent and indirect economic costs of wildfire such as post-wildfire flooding.

The White Mountain Stewardship Project (WMSP) was the first forest stewardship project of its size and duration, lasting 10 years (2004–2014). Based on in-depth interviews of local businesses, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service staff, and stakeholders, we present an assessment of the WMSP and lessons learned in large-scale contracting. The assessment includes factors that promoted project initiation, the contractual process, the overall impact to the local forest products industry and economy, and the formation of key partnerships. Experiences from the WMSP offer unique social and economic perspectives that can inform other communities at risk of wildfire. The recommendations were derived from final WMSP performance metrics and respondents' reflections on the outcomes of the WMSP. The lessons learned from the WMSP offer improvements for future restoration initiatives in USDA Forest Service contracting mechanisms, industry capacity, and coordination of stakeholder interests, including agency-to-industry, business-to-business, and agency-to-stakeholder partnerships. Management and Policy Implications Key recommendations resulting from the assessment of the 10-year White Mountain Stewardship Project (WMSP) focus on contracting processes, industry capacity, and partnerships. Recommendations for improving contracting processes include deriving a concise and mutually agreed upon contractor performance metric; conducting timely contract evaluations that track acre-to-volume relationship, government and industry costs, and revenue by product source; evaluating contractor performance; tracking the number and quality of jobs created and supported; providing an apprentice/journeyman training program; and verifying the appropriate rate of local wage in wage requirements. A key consideration for building industry's capacity is ensuring long-term availability of fiber necessary to amortize investments. Strategies include minimizing supply interruptions by estimating wood supply by location, type, size, and harvest timing relative to industry needs and market demands; sequencing and overlapping 10-year contracts with guaranteed supply and utilizing multiple contractors; and establishing policies that include financial incentives for research and development to harvest and process small diameter wood. Cohesive agency, industry, and stakeholder partnerships are critical to the success of forest restoration initiatives. Recommendations to nurture collaborative relationships include forming critical partnerships to define the issues and scope of a project, reach agreements, select an appropriately scaled mechanism, and find resources to increase capacity; utilizing intermediaries to improve USDA Forest Service-industry partnerships; convening a Multi-Party Monitoring Board to monitor ecological, social, and economic effects and improve outcomes through an adaptive management process; and developing transition plans for changing agency staff to assure continuity with a project's goals and objectives.

Fuels reduction programs aimed at reducing wildfire risk are increasing on national forests of the American Southwest. Incorporating both mechanical thinning and prescribed burning, fuels reduction projects can decrease the intensity and frequency of wildfires but also provide economic benefits to regional economies, businesses, and individuals. This article analyzes the economic impacts of national forest fuels reduction programs in the Southwest. Impacts, multipliers, and wood utilization rates were calculated for regions containing the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Gila, Kaibab, and San Juan National Forests. In total, fiscal year 2005 fuels reduction programs for these five national forests accounted for over $40 million of output and helped generate some 500 jobs, providing an economic stimulus to rural communities.

Forest restoration positively affects rural economies by facilitating employment and income generation with logging, wood utilization, and other restoration activities. To investigate economic effects and modeling of forest restoration, a regional contribution analysis of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) in Arizona was conducted. With over 12,000 acres mechanically thinned in 2017, 4FRI treatments led to the processing of 400,000 green tons of sawlogs and biomass. Restoration activities spurred more than 900 full-time equivalent jobs in the region, $50 million in regional labor income, and affected over 140 different industry sectors in the region. When compared to the US Forest Service Treatments for Restoration Economic Analysis Tool model estimates for 4FRI economic contributions, we found that using primary data from 4FRI contractors provided more conservative results. Primary considerations for modeling forest restoration contributions include contractor surveys, appropriate investigation of the regional context, methodological transparency in bridging restoration expenditures to input-output models, and consideration of how to enhance restoration contributions.

Forest ecosystems contribute to human welfare in important ways, but because of the nonmarket nature of many of the goods and services produced, both markets and governments fail to optimize their production commensurate with their economic and ecological significance. Despite the recent proliferation of nonmarket environmental valuation in the literature, the incorporation of nonmarket values into public forest decision making has been limited by institutional and methodological barriers. To address this disconnect, we conducted a case study to quantify conservation values for the Tongass National Forest in a manner conducive for public forest planning. A choice experiment featuring proposed forest management alternatives with changes in critical attributes relative to their levels in the status quo was used to generate the requisite data. Econometric analysis suggests that Alaskans have strong preference for conservation management, including both preservation and ecological restoration, over status quo or exploitation management. However, there is significant heterogeneity among Alaskans in terms of bias toward the status quo depending on their socioeconomic characteristics, e.g., gender, age, place of residence, household income, whether or not they have dependent children. The findings of this study can be helpful to forest managers in the preparation of resource management plans consistent with maximization of total economic value of forest ecosystem services.

Early applications of wilderness economic research demonstrated that the values of natural amenities and commodities produced from natural areas could be measured in commensurate terms. To the surprise of many, the economic values of wilderness protection often exceeded the potential commercial values that might result from resource extraction. Here, the concepts and tools used in the economic analysis of wilderness are described, and the wilderness economic literature is reviewed with a focus on understanding trends in use, value, and economic impacts. Although our review suggests that each of these factors is trending upward, variations in research methods plus large gaps in the literature limit understanding of long-run trends. However, as new data on wilderness use, visitor origins, and spatially referenced features of landscapes are becoming increasingly available, more robust economic analysis of both onsite and offsite wilderness economic values and impacts is now becoming possible.

There is general consensus that ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine systems is necessary and there exists ample ecological science suggesting that it is physically attainable. However, the pace of restoration has been noticeably slow and is far from approaching the landscape level. We conducted a review of published journal articles, book chapters, and proceedings on the restoration of ponderosa pine forests in the Southwest in order to identify and examine the primary socioeconomic barriers that are impeding the progress of ecological restoration in the region. The role of small-diameter wood utilization in the southwestern United States is highlighted as an example of broader, divergent socioeconomic contexts needing reconciliation if restoration is to expand to the ecosystem scale. A synthesis of opportunities for overcoming barriers and furthering the progress of forest restoration is provided. Keywords: biomass, ecological restoration, ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa ), restoration economics, small-diameter wood utilization